Introduction: How to Install Fedora on a USB Flash Drive With Persistence Install!

By

DISCLAIMER: I (Se1f_Destruct) am NOT responsible for any problems that may arrise from following this instructable. This includes:
1. Loss of data
2. Damage
3. Loss of warranty
4. Injury
5. World Domination


Hello! Today, I will show you how to make a bootable flash drive that runs Fedora (16, 32 bit) in persistance, a powerful and easy distro that is easily one of today's top distrobutions.To follow this instructable, I assume that you:

Have enough knowledge to boot from a flash drive (If not, don't fret. It's covered in the last step.)

Have a BIOS that can boot from a flash drive (If not, click here, I recommend having this anyway, PLoP is a great tool that has helped me a lot in the past)

And I assume that you also have:

A (non-sandisk U3) flash drive that is capable of booting and has at least 1GB of space (2GB+ reccommended, 4GB strongly encouraged).

A computer with at least ~680MB of free space

Above is a screenshot of the finished product, booting in all of it's glory:

Step 1: Get Fedora

Here is a picture of what ISO you should be downloading.

The first thing that you are going to need is the ISO, the disk image that contains all the files for Fedora to run. You can get Fedora here and save it to an easily accessible location. Just make sure that the image is up to date and that you select 32bit. We wouldn't want to use 64bit because we are striving for portability here, and many computers are not 64bit compatible, so use 32bit (unless you know what you are doing, or only want to boot the flash drive on 64bit machines). Alternatively, you can get Fedora through a bit-torrent client, you can do so by going here and clicking on Fedora Desktop Live Media i686 - Live CD. The tool we will use later has the option to download Fedora, but I do not recommend using it, as it has not worked well for me in the past.


Step 2: Download the Required Tools

Here is a picture of where you should be downloading the tool.

Secondly, if you have seen other instructables on how to boot Linux from a USB flash drive, you may have noticed that they use the Universal USB Installer. It is a great tool, but is incompatible with Fedora 16 in the sense that it doesn't have the ability to create a persistence installation. (A persistence installation is an installation that contains not only the Linux files, but a large blank file used to store settings and applications. If your flash drive is 2GB or more, I strongly recommend a persistence installation!) You can get the application that we are going to use here, it is called the LiveUSB-creator and is used to install Fedora and Sugar-on-a-Stick to a flash drive.

I recommend only downloading the tool from the site I linked here, the reason being (as stated on the website) is on the site, as seen here:
Warning: There are virus-infected copies of the Windows liveusb-creator floating around various download sites on the internet. Only download the Windows liveusb-creator from this page!

Step 3: Install the Distro

Ok, so you have the tool downloaded, and you should have ran and installed it. If you have not, take the time and do that now.

Go ahead and open up the LiveUSB-Creator (The LUC). You should see a screen like the picture below. Let's run through the steps:


1. Use existing Live CD - Click this and browse to the Fedora ISO you downloaded earlier, usually in your downloads folder


2. Target device - Make sure that your flash drive is plugged in and properly formatted to the FAT filesystem. What's that? You don't know how? Mini-structable!
    1. Copy all data that you don't want lost off of the flash drive
    2. Go to "My Computer", right click the flash drive and click "Format"
    3. A window will pop up, under file system, select FAT or FAT32 (NOT exFat!)
    4. Click format and proceed with the instructable


3. Persistent storage - I strongly recommend having this, it allows you to install programs and keep documents on Linux. Slide the bar all the way to the right (It will take up all the space on the flash drive this way, so you have room to store things).


4. Create Live USB - Click it and watch it do it's magic. When it is done, it will look like the picture shown below.

Note: The picture shown above has "Fedora 10" selected, we are using Fedora 16. Make sure you read the instructions above, don't follow the picture below!

Step 4: Boot!

So you have the flash drive, Fedora is copied onto it by the LUC, and it is ready to go. What do we do next?


1. Turn your computer off, completely.


2. Insert your bootable flash drive


3. Turn the computer on


4. Keep pressing F12 until the computer beeps


5. There should be an option to boot from USB, select it and hit enter

Nothing? Try hitting other keys at boot, such as F10 or F8
If you STILL can't find the key to press or the menu to select a boot device, it would be easier just to follow the guide here.